Faders up, speakers on, nothing playing. Nearly every time, the cause is the first check below.
Check that “Audiout” is the Mac’s sound output
Audiout works by adding its own output device to your Mac — it appears as “Audiout” in System Settings › Sound and in the sound menu — and sending everything that plays into it to your speakers. That only works while Audiout is the Mac’s selected output. If anything switches the output to something else — clicking a different device in the sound menu, plugging in headphones, an app grabbing the output — the sound goes to that device instead, and the speakers on Audiout’s mixer fall silent.
Audiout notices and tells you: a warning appears in the panel reading “Audiout isn’t your Mac’s output device. Audio won’t play until you switch back.” Click the “Use Audiout” button beside it and sound returns.
You can also switch back yourself: open System Settings › Sound › Output (or the sound control in the menu bar’s Control Center) and pick “Audiout”. Audiout never switches the output back on its own — changing your Mac’s output is your call, so it waits for your click.
If “Audiout” isn’t the problem
Still silent with “Audiout” selected as the output? Rule these out in order:
- Mute and faders. What a speaker plays is Main × Scene × Speaker — if the “Main Audio” row is muted or pulled to zero, every room is. Check the master fader first, then the speaker’s own row. Muting the This Mac row mutes the Mac itself, so the Sound menu shows it muted too. The mixer: Main Audio, faders, and meters explains the model.
- Is the speaker switched on in the mixer? Each speaker row has an on/off switch. A speaker that isn’t switched on isn’t part of the mix, however loud its fader sits.
- A speaker waiting for a password or code. A protected speaker with nothing saved shows “Enter Password…” or “Enter Code…” on its row and plays nothing until you enter it. See AirPlay speaker or TV asks for a password or code.
- Your trial has ended. Audiout then plays on one speaker at a time. Switching on a second speaker shows a note instead, and that row offers “Play here” for a few seconds. See Audiout only plays on one speaker after the trial.
- The system audio permission. Audiout has to be allowed to hear your Mac’s sound before it can send it anywhere. If that permission was turned off, the Setup window reopens naming it — see A permission got turned off.
- A capture failure note. If macOS stops handing Audiout the system’s audio, rows can still read “Connected” while nothing plays; Audiout shows a note in the panel when this happens. Quitting and reopening Audiout restarts the capture.
- The app you expect is on the excluded list. Apps added under Settings › Audio always play on the Mac itself and never reach the speakers.
- One speaker went quiet, not all of them. A speaker that drops off stays in the mixer with the reason, and rejoins on its own when it is back. If sound stops everywhere anyway, playback falls back to your Mac and tells you why.
Headphones and new devices
Plugging in headphones or connecting a new audio device makes macOS switch the output to it — that’s the system’s own behavior, and it’s the most common way “Audiout” quietly stops being the output. When your speakers go silent right after connecting something, it’s almost certainly this: pick “Audiout” again, or click “Use Audiout” in the panel’s warning.
After sleep and wake
Closing the lid is fine. When the Mac wakes, your speakers reconnect on their own, so there is nothing to pick again.
Still stuck? Write to support@audiout.app with what you tried — we answer.